fajrdrako | Comics...

Read a pile this morning. Not own, comics I borrowed from Lyn, and therefore not series I am buying.

Haven't there been other Giant-Size Wolverines? No matter. This is a story about a little girl on a farm and a monster in the basement; it read to me more like an old Swamp Thing story, an didn't really need Wolverine as the viewpoint. Written by David Lapham; not terrible (if you like monster-in-the-basement stories) but not very inspired. In its favour was the usual rapport Wolverine has with little girls. I liked that part.

The art was messy and moody.

A story by Marc Guggenheim and Humberto Ramos. Again, I didn't like the art, but it was readable, and Wolverine was nicely in character. My favourite bit was actually political dialogue. I don't usually pay attention to comic book politics, but I really liked this exchange between Wolverine and Maria Hill of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Maria: It's almost funny how quick some people are to label sensible legislation as fascism.
Wolverine: So trading liberty for safety's what passin' for 'sensible' these days? 'Cause I seem to think the motto of America - and I'm Canadian, so that might be why I'm confused - used to be 'Give me liberty or give me death.'
Maria: Are all Canadians this judgmental?
Wolverine: When it comes to America, pretty much.

Hee. I like being reminded that Wolverine is Canadian.

By David Hine and Yanick Paquette. Now, there's a name that must be Canadian. (Though I suppose he could be American-Acadian or Cajun. I ought to know.) The art had good facial expressions, bad layouts. O*N*E and X-Men team up to rescue the 198, with help from Tony Stark, all of which I liked. I didn't like the plot so much, but it had great moments - such as when Leech risks his life to save Cyclops from exploding with the force of his own power.

I hated the art by Steve Dillon so much I found it difficult to read. The only thing I liked was that it's great to see Jubilee with Wolverine again.

This is a comic I am actually reading and loving. Paul Jenkinds is a fine writer and it features some characters I love - like Ben Urich. I don't like the back-up war story, though. I always skip that part.

I used to love Uncanny X-Men and I have certainly enjoyed the writing of Ed Brubaker in the past, so what went wrong here? I find his ongoing Shi-ar story incredibly tedious.

Now this is more like it. Domestic troubles within the Baxter Building! And Sue Richards being assertive. Love it. Reed is being an idiot; I'll be glad to see what happens when he changes his mind, but meanwhile, I like the way he is given reasons for being so wrong. Seeing Ben Grimm leave Reed was almost worst than seeing Sue go.